The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-10-01
civ 5]aitg 9nllFtin.
SATURDAY, OCT. /, 1887.
INE LOUISIANA SUGAR INDUSTRY.


1t is becoming evident that the
sugar industry of this State needs
new methods instilled into it to meet
with success and bring profit to
those engaged with it. The sugar
planters of Louisiana are among the
most energetic and progressive of
its citizens, but they have found it
no easy matter TO make money at
raising sugar. The overproduction
of this article has forced down the
price to the minimum figure, and,
moreover, other countries have i'm
proved the machinery and methods
used in the manufacture of sugar
and obtained better results. Louis
lana must do the same il she wishes
to hold on to this industry, which
was once her greatest source of
profit.
The following facts are now uni
versally recognized by those who
know anything Of the manufacture
Of sugar:
(l) The ordinary three-reller mill
and open kettle, or steam train APP
paratus, is not obtaining from q ton
of sugar cane more than an average
of 100 pounds per ton. With the
price of sugar ranging about three
and one-half to four cents per
pound for open kettle, and five cents
for centrifugal, the business does
not pay. Take a series of years,
good, bad and Indifferent, it is
doubtful whether the planter can
make both ends meet. 1t is gener-
ally conceded that unless the price
of sugar advances the planter, with
the ordinary apparatus in use, is
bound to cease the culture of sugar
cane.
(2) From the enormous quantity
of beet sugar thrown on the markets
of the world, through the operation
of the bounty system of Germans
and French, and from the economi-
cal methods adopted in other coun-
tries, it is to be feared that the price
will not advance.
(3) The question then with the
sugar interests is abandonment or
change of method of manufacture,
taking for granted that our method
of agriculture, if imperfect, is
sufficiently advanced to produce
profitable results if not hampered
by inefficient manufacture of the
raw material.
There are not per cent of the
sugar planters who have adopted the
recent Improvements whereby larger
yields of sugar per ton are obtained
at less cost. There is not q single
central factory in the State. The
few planters who purchase cane by
the ton merely supplement their own
crops with small outside purchases.
The cooperative system, involving
a union among contiguous planters,
and embracing two departments, the
manufacturing and agricultural, is
nowhere in Louisiana fact as vet.
The planters of st. Mary and num-
Der of citizens not planters have
initiated movement looking towards
such cooperative action.
The adoption of this system is a
matter of vital necessity. The sugar
trade is one Of the bases of the
commercial prosperity of New
Orleans. The people of st. Mary
are doing their best to establish this
new system of sugar cultivation and
manufat ture in Louisiana. They
should have the assistance of all the
sugar districts and particularly of
New Orleans, so interested in the
revival and encouragement of this
industry. The enterprise has more
than local interest and bearing,
for its success will place the sugar
interest on substantial basis. We
hope, therefore, that the new move
ment will receive the cordial support
and assistance it deserves. - New
Orleans Times-Democrat.